Difference between revisions of "Jewish merchants"

Revision as of 21:36, November 9, 2012

Jewish merchants

Editorial history

08/11/12: CSG, created page

Purpose of page

The MarineLives project is seeking to link and enhance HCA 13/71, not just to transcribe it. Jewish merchants feature in a number of HCA 13/71 cases and depositions.

All associates, facilitators, advisors and PhD Forum members are encouraged to contribute to this page from their knowledge of the material, and from their broader knowledge and interest in the topic.

• What trading activities are described involving Jewish merchants?
• Where are the Jewish merchants located, and with whom are they networked commercially and socially?
• Can you identify Portuguese merchants of possible Jewish faith, who conceal their religion for commercial reasons?

Adding footnotes

• Go into edit mode

• Insert immediately after the sentence or phrase you wish to annotate the following macro:

<ref>This is the footnote text</ref>

• Replace 'This is the footnote text' with the footnote you wish to add, using the format: first name, surname, title, (place of publication, date of publication), page or folio number

• Save the page

Creating an electronic link within the footnote to a digital source

• Using the link icon in the top RH menu bar in your open window, highlight the footnote text which you wish to become the clickable link. This will place square brackets round the text, within the existing curved brackets

e.g. <ref>[Electronic link to a digital source]</ref>

• Insert the URL of the digital source IN FRONT of the existing text, but still within the square brackets, leaving one space between the end of the URL and the start of the footnote text

e.g. <ref>[http://XXXXX Electronic link to a digital source]</ref>

• Save the page, and the footnote text will now show 'Electronic link to a digital source' as a clickable link, which, when clicked, will go to 'http://XXXXX'

Suggested links

PhD Forum

Andrew and Christofer Munez (alias ?Meyenberg)

Christopher Boone and the Munez/Meyenberg(h) family

The London merchant Christopher Boone was deposed on the behalfe of the Amsterdam based Jewish merchants, Andrew and Christofer Munez, alias Meyenberg, regarding the alleged embezzlement of goods on the wonderfully named Hare in the ffeild. Boone was the London correspondent of the Munez/Meyenberg family.

Christopher Boone (b. c. 1615, d. 1686) was from Taunton, in Somerset origin. He worked as a factor in Seville in the 16XX, prior to returning to London. He was brother or cousin of Thomas Boone, also a merchant, and both were involved in the Spanish trade. Christopher Boone was also a cousin of Sir George Oxenden, who was President of the East India Company in Surat (1662-1669).

Both Christopher and Thomas Boone appear frequently in the correspondence of the Spanish merchant, John Paige.^[1] Paige was associated with Maurice Thompson in the 1650s in several ventures in the East Indies. Thomas Boone had been involved with Maurice Thompson in the late 1640s in advancing the Asssada plantation off Madagascar.

Christopher Boone's deposition in a case involving the Dutch ship the Hare in the Fields makes mention of the restrictions on trade for Jewish merchants in Spain. He was later resident at St Leonard, Bromley, Middlesex (1666) and at All Saints, Lee, West Kent (1686).

• "The said Andrew and Christofer were of the Jewish Profession of Religion and therefore not free to trade in Spaine"

- HCA 13/71 f.220r Case: On the behalfe of the foresaid ?Meyenberg alias Andrew and Chr Munez, touching goods embeazled out of the hare in the ffeild ; Deposition: 4. Christofer Boone of London Merchant, aged 38 yeeres: Date: XXXX^[2]

The Hare in the field

Additional traces of the Hare in the field in various printed primary source include:

• Letter dated 'Nieuport, the Dutch embassador in England, to N. Ruysch, Westminster, June 18, 1655. [N. S.]'

I have also demanded relaxation of the ship called, the Hare in the Field of Middelburgh, and of the cargo thereof, being taken at sea, sailing from Havre de Grace to Cadiz in Spain, laden with rich goods; and the council has found good thereupon, that the said memorial, together with some instructions which were annexed thereunto, should be delivered to the commissioners of sea affairs and the fleet, with order that they should make an exact report thereof on yesterday. This morning I understood, that the said gentlemen had been ready, but that the council, treating upon publick affairs, the time was spent therein. I am told under hand, that proof can be made, that part of the cargo belongs to French merchants. I will further do my utmost endeavours, that a speedy and favourable resolution may be given upon my said memorials.^[3]

• Letter dated 'Nieuport, the Dutch ambassador in England, the gressier Ruysch' (ca. September 10th, 1655):

Referring to "secondly, the excess which is daily committed in bringing in ships and goods belonging to the said subjects into the ports and harbours of England, as well by private men of war, as the ships in the service of this state", the Dutch ambassador went on to state: "To the second, concerning some particular complaints, I desired, that the ship the Hare in the Field, also the Frog, might both be released, being both of Middleburgh..."^[4]

• Consul Vanden Hove to the States General, Cadiz, 8th October, 1656. [N. S.]

High and mighty lords,

My lords, since my last letter of the first current, I have delivered to the lord duke of Medina Celi your high and mighty lordships concerning the ship the Hare-in-the-field, and did speak with him myself about it; and at last, after some difficulties, which his excellency proposed, he was induced by me to suspend the sale of half of the goods, as long as was possible, for which he had an order of his majesty.^[5]

• Extract out of the register of the resolution of the lords states-general., Jovis the 29 of March 1657. [N.S.]:

Secondly, that a certain ship, called the Hare in the field, is detained at Cadiz with her whole lading, both ship and goods belonging to the inhabitants of this state, except a few goods laden in England, without the knowledge of the interested, and is threatned with confiscation.^[6]

• Letter dated 'Admiral De Ruyter to the states-general, from aboard the ship Amsterdam, the 8th of April 1657

The Hare in the field continued to be involved in trading English goods, with an ambiguous national identity, as can be seen in in letter from Admiral de Ruyter to the states-general, written from his vessel in the western Mediterranean, off the coast of Spain, and dated April 8th 1657:

1. ↑ The letters of John Paige, London merchant, 1648-58: London Record Society 21 (1984). See, for example, pp. IX-XXXIX; pp. 70, 93
2. ↑ HCA 13/71 f.220r
3. ↑ Thomas Birch (ed.), State Papers, 1655: June (2 of 7)', A collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, volume 3: December 1654 - August 1655 (1742), pp. 514-528
4. ↑ Thomas Birch (ed.), A collection of the state papers of John Thurloe, Esq., vol. 3: December 1654 to September 1655(London, 1742), pp. 749-750
5. ↑ Thomas Birch (ed.), 'State Papers, 1656: September (7 of 7)', A collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, volume 5: May 1656 - January 1657 (1742), pp. 447-469
6. ↑ Thomas Birch (ed.), 'State Papers, 1657: March (3 of 5)', A collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, volume 6: January 1657 - March 1658 (1742), pp. 117-132
7. ↑ 'Admiral De Ruyter to the states-general, vol. xlviii. p. 363', in Thomas Birch (ed.), 'State Papers, 1657: March (5 of 5)', A collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, volume 6: January 1657 - March 1658 (London, 1742), pp. 147-157